At a center-wide level, the NCATS Chemical Genomic Center's overall goal is to uncover new small molecule therapeutics and catalyze the process of therapeutic development through a model of collaborative research. With each collaboration, NIH and extramural disease experts work with the NCGCs drug discovery teams, who provide access to small molecule screening, medicinal chemistry and informatics expertise. The objectives of the NCGC are: 1. Collaborate with both NIH and extramural investigators to advance small molecule screening projects for disease targets (assay development, screening and validation) and help characterize the underlying biology. 2. Pursue new technologies for target-based and phenotypic screening, as well as for downstream validation. 3. Provide characterized small molecule probes against identified targets to act as tools for future research, and as starting points for drug development campaigns. 4. Leverage NCGC expertise in medicinal chemistry and informatics to guide hit-to-lead optimization and other synthetic chemistry efforts.